By By MaryClaire Foster
special to the standard
From its opening in January, Wind Creek Casino and Hotel has worked to provide its patrons with top notch facilities and amenities.
Continuing in those efforts, Wind Creek’s newest amenity, an outdoor amphitheatre, will be filled to its capacity of 2,500 when country music superstar Reba McEntire takes the stage Friday night.
McEntire is the first of four big-name entertainers set to perform at the casino in the coming months. Fellow country singer Hank Williams Jr. will follow McEntire with a performance on Aug. 29 and then the casino will switch things up with rocker Bret Michaels Oct. 9 and R&B singer Keith Sweat Oct. 16.
PCI vice president of marketing Brent Pinkston said the casino’s approach to selecting entertainers was simple — bring in the biggest and the best.
Pinkston said the casino also took input about entertainer selection from its players.
Pinkston said the casino is seeing positive feedback from its selection with both McEntire’s and Williams’ performances selling out, as well as the hotel being fully booked for the dates. Most recently, the hotel was booked for the Fourth of July holiday.
The high performance is also being seen in the casino’s numbers, according to Pinkston, with an average of 5,000 guests Monday through Thursday and 7,500 Friday through Sunday.
Next up for the casino is a Labor Day-slated grand opening of a spa and cooking school.
Pinkston said it is uncertain whether there will be any other big name performances held in the amphitheatre, but the possibility of a November or December performance will be based on how the first acts go.